The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin
Genre	Animated series
Created by	Ken Forsse
Written by	Marry Crawford Derek Diorio
Directed by	Chris Schouten
Voices of	Phil Baron Will Ryan John Stocker John Koensgen Robert Bockstael Les Lye Abby Hagyard Pier Kohl Holly Larocque
Theme music composer	George Wilkins
Composer(s)	Andrew Huggett George Wilkins (songs)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	65
Production
Producer(s)	Christopher J. Brough Jean Chalopin Alison Clayton
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Atkinson Film-Arts DiC Enterprises
Broadcast
Original channel	First run syndication Nickelodeon
Original run	September 14, 1987 – December 11, 1987

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin is an American animated television series based on Teddy Ruxpin, an animatronic teddy bear created by Ken Forsse and distributed by toy manufacturer Worlds of Wonder.^[1] It was produced for television syndication by DiC with Atkinson Film-Arts using many of the same voice actors used in the book-and-tape series that was made for the eponymous animatronic toy. While some of the stories used in the TV series were adapted from the books, many were original and greatly expanded upon the world established there. The series differed from traditional children's animation in that most of its 65 episodes were serialized rather than in traditional episodic form.

In the United States, the series was originally syndicated by LBS Communications. Today, all international distribution rights to the series are held by Don Taffner's DLT Entertainment.

Plot summary

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin follows young Teddy Ruxpin as he leaves his home on the island of Rillonia with his best friend Grubby to follow an ancient map which leads him to find a collection of crystals on the mainland of Grundo. With the help of his new friend Newton Gimmick, Teddy and Grubby discover the magical powers of what turns out to be an ancestral treasure as well as an organization with ambitions to use it for evil known as M.A.V.O. (short for Monsters and Villains Organization). Along the way, Teddy learns the long-lost history of his species and clues to the location of his missing father.^[2]

Series History

In mid-1986, Atkinson Film Arts of Ontario, Canada was commissioned to co-produce (with Worlds of Wonder, AlchemyII, and DiC) a 65 episode animated television series based on the World of Teddy Ruxpin characters. The series followed a prior attempt to produce a live-action series which had proved too difficult and expensive. Atkinson was in charge of the principal animation and casting. Of the previous voice actors associated with the Teddy Ruxpin property, only Phil Baron (Teddy) and Will Ryan (Grubby) traveled to Canada to remain part of the cast, most other characters were re-cast with local Canadian voice talent. The series was originally intended to continue for more episodes, but because of economic problems at Worlds of Wonder (the series' primary financial partner) a 2nd set of episodes was not produced while Worlds of Wonder still had rights to the property. Interest remains among the owners of the Teddy Ruxpin property and the fanbase to continue the story originated in the animated series, which ended its 65 episode run in somewhat of a cliffhanger.

Characters

Main characters

The three main protagonists, often referred to collectively in fandom as The Trio:

• Teddy Ruxpin (voiced by Phil Baron): A young Illiop (roughly 15) whose father disappeared when he was a child. He comes to Grundo to follow a treasure map. Like other Illiops, he is kind and friendly. He loves adventure.
• Grubby (voiced by Will Ryan): An Octopede about Teddy's age. They are best friends. Noted for his large appetite, he is fond of cooking and eating root stew and other foods made from roots (which usually do not taste good to most people). Though not the bravest or smartest of Teddy's friends, he always sticks by Teddy.
• Newton Gimmick (John Stocker): A bald inventor with a slight stuttering problem and a broad and otherwise questionable definition of "science". He is also somewhat absent-minded. He is usually referred to simply as Gimmick.

Allies

• Prince Arin (voiced by Robert Bockstael): The brave Illiper son of the king and queen of Grundo. He lives at Grundo Castle and speaks with a British-sounding accent. He first met the trio while searching for his kidnapped sister.
• Princess Aruzia (voiced by Abby Hagyard): Prince Arin's younger sister who has a sweet demeanor. Though a princess, she does not mind doing work. Wooly apparently has a crush on her.
• The Wooly Whatsit (voiced by Pier Kohl): A large furry purple creature who is not very bright, but very helpful and good-hearted. Later revealed to be a Snowzo. He is usually referred to simply as Wooly.
• Leota (voiced by Holly Larocque): A strict but kind Woodsprite and schoolteacher. Most of her students are elves and woodsprites, but Wooly joined the class as well.
• Burl Ruxpin (voiced by Phil Baron): Teddy's long-lost father. An Illiop who lost his memory a long time ago, but regained his identity toward the end of the series.

Villains

There are three main antagonists:

• Jack W. Tweeg (voiced by John Koensgen): A Troll/Grunge hybrid and an evil wizard-wannabe who thinks he has a recipe to turn buttermilk into gold. He is very suspicious and often spies on Gimmick from his tower. He is usually referred to as simply Tweeg. Jack W. Tweeg has desperately wanted to join M.A.V.O.
  • L.B. (voiced by Robert Bockstael): Short for Lead Bounder, L.B. is a sarcastic Bounder who usually acts as Tweeg's henchman. L.B. does not show a particularly high degree of loyalty or intelligence, but has enough sense to know that Tweeg's schemes never work.
• Quellor (voiced by Les Lye): The Supreme Oppressor of M.A.V.O. He is the main villain of the series who sees Illiops as an enemy to his master plan of regaining all six crystals to the one he has in The Black Box. With them, his darkness will reign supremely over the land of Grundo.

Species

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin features a large menagerie of sentient species for its character base:

• Illiops: Brown and bear-like, with kind dispositions.
• Octopedes: Orange and caterpillar-like with eight legs, each with fully formed hands.
• Perlunes: Humans who usually are professional in nature (e.g. scientist, doctor, wizard).
• Illipers: The near-relatives to humans but broad-faced with flat noses, who live in a medieval type society.
• Grunges: Relatives of the Illipers but jungle-dwellers with antennae in lieu of ears, who tend to be passionate about their hobbies.
• Fobs: Small, furry, multicolored and penguin-like, sometimes kept as pets.
• Elves: Tiny humanoids with pointy ears and shoes.
• Woodsprites: Tiny humanoids with butterfly-like wings.
• Snowzos: A race of large, white and yeti-like creatred who look more dangerous than they are.
• Bounders: A race of red, round, two-legged and rhinoceros-like, usually sarcastic. They are said by some viewers to resemble Ripto from the Spyro the Dragon series.
• Mudblups: A race of large and lumpy animated blobs of mud, dull witted and slow moving but very strong. Sensitive to bright light, since all of their lives are spent underground.
• Trolls: Green, thin, and with pointed noses, for them being good means being bad.
• Gutangs: Green and monkey-like who wear brown tribal owl-like armor, usually belligerent.
• Anythings: Small shy creatures able to change into other objects, i.e., carrots, potatoes, other produce. They use their ability to hide. They were previously called Nothings.

The Seven Crystals of Grundo

• The First Crystal (Imagination) - Shrink and Grow
• The Second Crystal (Honesty) - Duplication
• The Third Crystal (Trust) - Invisibility
• The Fourth Crystal (Bravery) - Oxygen Generator
• The Fifth Crystal (Friendship) - Speed Altering
• The Sixth Crystal (Freedom) - Flight Ability
• The Seventh Crystal (The Black Box) - Restore and Erase Memory

The episodes

Overview

Although the series is mostly serialized, it is further broken down into weekly story arcs which involve visiting a different part of Grundo or exploring a major plot thread. Some story lines were taken directly from the toy's book & tape story sets, with secondary plots added to increase the running time.

Protect Yourself

When the series was originally syndicated, each episode included a short segment called "Protect Yourself" which ran after a teaser for the next episode and prior to the credits. It featured an animated Teddy Ruxpin on a live-action set, who would introduce contemporary child stars such as Jason Bateman, Brice Beckham, Tiffany Brissette, Shannen Doherty, Corey Feldman and Shalane McCall. The guest would then give young viewers advice on topics such as avoiding strangers, what to do in an emergency, how to respond to inappropriate touching, or running away. A common theme was to talk to a trusted grown up for help.

Episode list

1. The Treasure of Grundo -
2. Beware of the Mudblups -
3. Guests of the Grunges -
4. In the Fortress of the Wizard -
5. Escape from the Treacherous Mountain -
6. Take a Good Look -
7. Grubby's Romance -
8. Tweeg's Mom -
9. The Surf Grunges -
10. The New M.A.V.O. Member -
11. The Faded Fobs -
12. The Medicine Wagon -
13. Tweeg Gets the Tweezles -
14. The Lemonade Stand -
15. The Rainbow Mine -
16. The Wooly What's-It -
17. Sign of a Friend -
18. One More Spot -
19. Elves and Woodsprites -
20. Grundo Graduation -
21. Double Grubby -
22. King Nogburt's Castle -
23. The Day Teddy Met Grubby -
24. Secret of the Illiops -
25. Through Tweeg's Fingers -
26. Uncle Grubby -
27. The Crystal Book -
28. Teddy and the Mudblups -
29. Win One for the Twipper -
30. Tweeg Joins M.A.V.O. -
31. The Mushroom Forest -
32. Anything in the Soup -
33. Captured -
34. To the Rescue -
35. Escape from M.A.V.O. -
36. Leekee Lake -
37. The Third Crystal -
38. Up for Air -
39. The Black Box -
40. The Hard to Find City -
41. Octopede Sailors -
42. Tweeg the Vegetable -
43. Wizard Land -
44. The Ying Zoo -
45. The Big Escape -
46. Teddy Ruxpin's Birthday -
47. Wizard Week -
48. Air and Water Races -
49. The Great Grundo Ground Race -
50. A Race to the Finish -
51. Autumn Adventure -
52. Gimmick's Gizmos and Gadgets -
53. Harvest Feast -
54. Wooly and the Giant Snowzos -
55. Winter Adventure -
56. Teddy's Quest -
57. Thin Ice -
58. Fugitives -
59. Musical Oppressors -
60. M.A.V.O. Costume Ball -
61. Father's Day -
62. The Journey Home -
63. On the Beaches -
64. L.B.'s Wedding -
65. The Mystery Unravels -

Cast

• Phil Baron - Teddy Ruxpin, Burl Ruxpin
• Will Ryan - Grubby
• John Stocker - Newton Gimmick
• John Koensgen - Jack W. Tweeg
• Robert Bockstael - L.B., Prince Arin
• Abby Hagyard - Princess Aruzia
• Pier Kohl - The Wooly Whatsit, Additional Voices
• Holly Larocque - Leota the Woodsprite
• Les Lye - Quellor, Additional Voices
• Heather Edson - Additional Voices
• Donna Farron - Additional Voices
• Rick Jones - Additional Voices
• Anna MacCormack - Additional Voices
• Doug Stratton - Additional Voices
• Terrence Scammell - Additional Voices

NOTE: In the tape & book series and the animetronic pilot episode, Tony Pope voiced Gimmick, Will Ryan also voiced Tweeg and Wooly, Katie Leigh voiced Princess Aruzia, and Russi Taylor voiced Leota.

VHS/DVD releases

From 1987 to 1988, Hi-Tops Video released twelve volumes of the series (17 episodes) on VHS. They featured between 1 to 3 episodes per tape, and oftentimes had a live-action Teddy Ruxpin as host.

In February 2006 First National Pictures released two volumes of the series (11 episodes) on DVD. Two additional volumes were to be released to complete the series but for unknown reasons they were never released.

In January 2008, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the rights to the series; they subsequently released all 65 episodes in three volume sets. On January 27, 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment released a 6-disc complete series box set featuring all 65 episodes on DVD for the very first time.^[3] As of 2010, these releases have been discontinued and are out of print.

DVD Name	Ep#	Release Date
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin: Six Crystals	20	January 15, 2008[4]
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin: Mysteries of Hard to Find City	20	May 6, 2008[5]
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin: Return to Rillonia	25	July 22, 2008[6]
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin: Come Dream With Me - Complete Series	65	January 27, 2009[7]

Original concept

Originally, AlchemyII Inc. had hoped to create a live-action series using animatronic characters, as Ken Forsse had helped Disney do with Welcome to Pooh Corner and Dumbo's Circus. However, due to production costs and difficulties in this format, Forsse, AlchemyII and Worlds of Wonder decided animation would be a better route and the 65 episode animated series was created. The pilot episode of what would have been the animatronic series was instead released as a stand-alone ABC Movie of the week in 1986 and also aired in syndication as a 2-part episode.^[8] The show can be found on videocassette.^[9] The "animatronic movie", as it's called by Teddy Ruxpin fans, used primarily the same voice talent as the Teddy Ruxpin toy software had, most of which (with the exception of Phil Baron and Will Ryan) were replaced in the later animated TV series by Canadian voice talent.

Impact in popular culture

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (Мечето Ръкспин), was one of the very first western cartoon shows to be seen by the population of Bulgaria in the late 1980s. The influence of this show can be seen in the text of the then modern post-punk band REVIEW (РЕВЮ)and their song "Teddy Ruxpin" [1] ; also the very first underground music shop to open in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, was and is to this date called MAVO (ОЧЗ),^[10] in reference to the antagonistic organization in the cartoon show.

References

1. ^ "Problems of Toy's Producer Leave Its Creator in a Bind". The Los Angeles Times. January 19, 1988. http://articles.latimes.com/1988-01-19/business/fi-36933_1_teddy-ruxpin. Retrieved 2010-08-22. 
2. ^ Lovable Teddy Ruxpin evolves from toy to animated star of his own half-hour program thanks to Crawley Films, Toronto Star - Oct 31, 1987
3. ^ "The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin DVD news: Announcement for The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin - Come Dream With Me: The Complete Series". TVShowsOnDVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Adventures-Teddy-Ruxpin-The-Complete-Series/10910. Retrieved 2011-08-20. 
4. ^ "Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin, The: The Six Crystals DVD @ DVD Empire". Dvdempire.com. 2008-01-29. http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1386639. Retrieved 2011-08-20. 
5. ^ "Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin, The: Mysteries Of Hard To Find City DVD @ DVD Empire". Dvdempire.com. http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1401318. Retrieved 2011-08-20. 
6. ^ "Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin, The: Return To Rillonia DVD @ DVD Empire". Dvdempire.com. 2008-07-22. http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1409373. Retrieved 2011-08-20. 
7. ^ "Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin, The: Come Dream With Me - The Complete Series DVD @ DVD Empire". Dvdempire.com. 2009-01-27. http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1440785. Retrieved 2011-08-20. 
8. ^ "Interview with Jeff Wilson". Teddy Ruxpin Online. http://www.teddyruxpinonline.com/wilson.html. Retrieved 2011-08-20. 
9. ^ "The Interview with Ken Forsse". Josh Isaacson, Teddy Ruxpin Online. http://www.teddyruxpinonline.com/ken.html. Retrieved 2007-02-06. 
10. ^ "В ОЧЗ пазаруват не зомбита, а свободни по дух хора : Долче вита : Фреш : Novinar.bg". Novinar.net. 2009-12-26. http://www.novinar.net/?act=news&act1=det&stat=center&mater=Mjc3MDszMw==&sql=Mjc3MDs1MA==. Retrieved 2011-08-20. 

External links

• The Official Teddy Ruxpin Site for the new release of the toy in 2006
• Teddy Ruxpin Online- A Fan Website with an interview with creator Ken Forsse
• Illiop.com
• The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin at the Internet Movie Database
• The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin at TV.com
• First National Pictures Press Release
• The UNofficial Teddy Ruxpin Frequently Asked Questions website - The oldest Teddy Ruxpin fan website